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I got a package.  No sender address on it and the only clue was a G2 postal franking telling me it’s from Glasgow.  No covering letter and I’ve spent too much time trying to find out who might have sent this -I may as well say Mrs Helen McDruggah of Gorbles.

PLEASE if you send items for review tell me:

1]  Who you are

2]  How copies can be ordered

3]  whether the cover price includes P&p.

Sorry,very short tempered today and I don’t have time for all of this so if you sent these items LET ME KNOW HOW THEY CAN BE ORDERED ETC..

WASTED no.1

Full Colour

64pp

A4

£3.25

bad press ltd

Well,Jon Haward alerted me to this one last year because he did a great cover for it.  Jon also contributes the excellent Tales Of The Buddah.  I mentioned the comic twice and reviewed it after buying a copy -did no.2 appear?

This is,as I wrote last year,a full colour Underground comix of excellent quality with scripts by Alan Grant and other contributors include Alan Kerr [Lusi Sulfura],John A. Short and Gabrielle Noble [Spliffy The Stoner Chick,etc],Dave Alexander,Colin Barr and Curt Sibling [Hell's Belles] and many others.

It does clearly state on the cover “Adult Humour Not For Sale To Children” though I have seen two school kids with a copy [hey,I'm not complaining -I got into trouble for pushing OZ magazine at school]. Hey,might be less corrupting than Marvel or DC.

An excellent buy -check out your local comic store.

 www.badpressltd.com

Khaki Shorts 19

Black & White

A5

24pp

£1.00

Publisher..?

Apparently,after searching MySpace,Blog,etc.,you can order this zine via:

http://www.myspace.com/khakishorts

There are some yellow paper pages here and,sadly,not pale yellow which might not have made some of the strips look so bad -”Jimmy Hendrix on the back cover.

“Apocalypse Now & Then” by Neil Bratchpiece reminded me somewhat of Big Bang Comics [Chris Robinson?] from the 1980s.  Big boobs,muscles and guns.

“Star Trudge” by Rob Miller shows some promising art.  “Men Out Of Time” by Martin J. Smith [script] and Adam J. Smith is amusing.  I really liked the look of “Super Scott:A Comedic Filler In 9 Panels” but can’t see any credit -I’m guessing by the artwork style it’s Rob Miller again? 

Having written that the next Super Scott strip does have a faded but legible R. Miller at the bottom of the page -put credits where they can be seen.

“Boy Mindless” by A.J. Smith might not be to bad but some of the text is faded from the copying.

There is a strip,set in a bar,with some very nice artwork and charicatures. The credit that I can read says “P. Miller”?  Hmm.  The strip goes on for four pages and is worth the £1.00 in itself.

New British Comics 1

80 pp

B&W

A5 [just a centimeter bigger maybe!]

£4.49

Cover by: Tim Rees, Jarosław Zieliński
Authors: Dave Thomson, Malcy Duff, Peter Rogers, Tom Walsh, Jarosław Zieliński, Dan White, Paul O’Connell, Daniel Locke, Caroline Parkinson, Lawrence Elwick, Rob Miller, Paul McCann, Tony Hitchman, Leonie O’Moore, Nelson Evergreen, Vanessa Wells

The first british comics anthology published in two books, in two languages: English and Polish. That’s right: two languages, two books, one set of contents. The comics are the same (except the lettering and some title pages) in both versions.

Table of contents:

Brownehayes
Story & Art by Dave Thomson

Untitled: inside the ice cream van
Story & Art by Malcy Duff

Brothers in Arms
Story by Peter Rogers, Pencils by Tom Walsh, Ink and Lettering by Jarosław Zieliński

Jackie goes to Hell
Story & Art by Dan White

The child molester
Story & Art by Paul O’Connell

No word of a lie…
Story & Art by Daniel Locke

Damienne Hobbs Reflects
Story & Art by Nelson Evergreen

Inner city
Story & Art by Caroline Parkinson

Charlie Parker “Handyman”
Story & Art by Paul O’Connell and Lawrence Elwick

Elexender Browne’s The Demeaning Of Life
Story & Art by Rob Miller

Andromeda and the Sea Serpent
Story by Tony Hitchman, Art by Leonie O’Moore

IAMUS
Story & Art by Paul McCann

Waving and Drowning
Story & Art by Vanessa Wells

This I really like.  It’s more like those German zine stalwarts of the 1980s such as Lippe where you get a bulky book,colour cover and varying styles of art.  And that is what makes this book so good:you have the typical zine artist intermixed with artists whose colour work has been grey-scaled to some really pro looking work -you REALLY need to check out the back cover which is superb and should -should- have been the front cover in my humble opinion.

I won’t touch on every strip but for me the highlights were “Damienne Hobbs Reflects” by Nelson Evergreen.  I’m guessing this might have been colour originally?  But who cares -this is sublimely superb and I’d definitely love to see more of this creator’s work.

The other great strip,or rather,illo-per-page,that caught my eye was the wonderful “Jackie Goes To Hell” by Dan White.  This type of work could well be adapted into a book -but not quite for kids!

Caroline Parkinson’s “Inner City” work is manga-esque in style and nice.  You can check out more of her work at:

http://carolineparkinson.blogspot.com

Very nice work comes from Paul O’Connell [script] and Lawrence Elwick in the form of “Charlie Parker Handiman”.  Good,crisp black and white work.

And Vanessa Wells contributes the slightly disturbing [unless that's just me] “Waving And Drowning” and nothing Vanessa does can ever be bad!

Again,the art styles are what grabs you.  At £4.49 this is cheap for what you are getting and I’ll give this 11 out of 10!

The link to the New British Comics site is:

http://www.polygobooks.com/newbritishcomics/eng/index.html

Three very different publications so how they are connected I have no idea.  But whoever sent them deserves a big “thanks” for New British Comic alone!